Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a development stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in the development and commercialization of novel therapeutics to treat debilitating and fatal rare diseases. The company focuses on therapeutics to treat severe inherited lipid disorders. Lipids are naturally occurring molecules, such as cholesterol and triglycerides that are transported in the blood. Its lead product, lomitapide has completed pivotal Phase III clinical trial to treat patients with a rare inherited lipid disorder called homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia, or HoFH. The company also plans to develop lomitapide for the treatment of adult patients with a severe genetic form of hypertriglyceridemia called familial chylomicronemia. Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Advisors' Opinion:

[By Keith Speights]

Aegerion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AEGR ) received FDA approval in late 2012 for Juxtapid in the treatment of HoFH. Soon afterward, the FDA approved another drug targeting HoFH, Kynamro, which was developed by Isis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ISIS ) and marketed by Sanofi's (NYSE: SNY ) Genzyme unit.

[By David Williamson]

It looks like the CHMP, Europe's version of the FDA advisory committee, didn't want the month to end without two big positive opinions, giving investors a nice little present heading into the weekend.Celgene's (NASDAQ: CELG ) relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma drug pomalidomide, and Aegerion's (NASDAQ: AEGR ) HoFH drug Juxtapid, are now likely to be approved in the EU.

Top 10 Construction Companies To Watch In Right Now: Arcadis NV (ARCAD)

Arcadis NV is a Netherlands-based international engineering and consultancy firm, providing consultancy, design, engineering and management services in infrastructure, water, environment and buildings. The Company develops, designs, implements, maintains and operates projects for companies and governments. The Company divides its business into four business lines: Infrastructure, which encompasses services for transportations, land development, energy and mining; Water, focused on water planning, wastewater and water management and consulting services; Environment, focused on activities that protect the environment and enhance sustainability, and Buildings, related to homebuilding as well as commercial and industrial buildings and facilities construction. Additionally, it works in partnership with UN-HABITAT, the United Nations agency for human settlements. Advisors' Opinion:

[By Sofia Horta e Costa]

Companies like Expedia Inc. (EXPE), which provides online travel booking services, and Arcadis NV (ARCAD), a Dutch designer of bridges and dikes, are likely to increase profit at a faster pace than larger firms during an improving economy, Duret said. Smaller companies are also less leveraged, with U.S. mid-caps holding 46 percent less debt per share than firms listed on the S&P 500, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Google has taken a big step forward in complying with the European Union’s new “Right To Be Forgotten” that was established after a court ruling earlier this month.

The company has created a new form allowing those in the EU to request takedown of URLs they dislike. Removals will only happen for EU-versions of Google, and there will be disclosure in Google’s results when listings are dropped.

How The Form Works

Google’s Right To Be Forgotten Form

You’ll find the new form here. It requires people to select one of the 28 European Union countries plus provides support for four non-EU countries:�Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. I’m checking with Google on why the other four were added; likely there’s some legal reasoning because these countries are often closely aligned in trade and other agreements with the EU.

The form allows an individual or someone representing an individual to put in a request. The form requires submission of a photo ID of the individual the request is for. So even if a third-party is doing the submission for someone else, they need that person’s photo ID as a way to prove they have some type of approval by them.

The form allows people to list the name that they want results removed for, but only one name. In other words, if you were known as both “Larry Page” and “Lawrence Page,” the form requires that you pick one of those names. You can’t indicate both. Presumably, you could resubmit the same information for other name variations.

The form then allows people to list one or more URLs they want removed, and they have to provide an explanation about why they want them dropped. In particular, you have to explain why each URL is “irrelevant, outdated, or otherwise inappropriate,” wording that goes back to the original court ruling about why material can be removed.

What Happens After Submission

At the moment, once a form is submitted, it goes into a holding queue. Here’s the response that Google sends out:

Hi,

Thanks for reaching out to us!

We have received your legal request. We are currently building our system for removing links from our search results according to EU data protection law. In the meantime, your message is in our queue. Once we have our system up and running, we’ll process your request as quickly as our workload permits.

Regards, The Google Team

A trusted source familiar with Google’s plans tells Search Engine Land that in the near future, those requests be reviewed by people who are part of Google’s removal team. The timeframe isn’t set. Removals could happen in a matter of days, though they might not start for weeks.

Will everything get removed? No, according to our source — but requests that are complete and make a reasonable explanation of why a listing is irrelevant, outdated or inappropriate in that person’s view should have a good chance of being removed.

Google has already received thousands of requests, it has acknowledged, even before this form has gone up. Our source says that most of these are unlikely to be approved, as they won’t have met the formalized criteria that the form requires, such as ID. But, those people can resubmit using the now formal process.

Overall, each removal will be examined on a case-by-case basis. In the case of rejection, people will be notified and told they can appeal to their country’s data protection agency.

Removals Only Happen In The EU, For EU-Versions Of Google

Google itself tells Search Engine Land that removals won’t pull a URL out of Google worldwide. Instead, if a removal is approved, the URL will be dropped for searches on the associated name from all the EU-specific versions of Google that the company maintains.

For example, say someone from the United Kingdom puts in a request that’s approved. The URL will be dropped out of Google UK, in that person’s home country. But it will also be dropped out of Google France, Google Germany, Google Spain and other versions of Google for individual EU countries.

In contrast, the URL would not be dropped from Google.com. Anyone going to Google.com, whether in the US or EU, will still see the URLs. Removals will only be done from the EU versions.

Also, it seems likely that those going to particular EU versions from outside the EU would still see the URLs. For example, if you were in the US and went to Google UK, in the scenario above, you might still see the URLs. I’m double-checking on this.

Removals Will Be Disclosed

Currently, when Google censors its listings, it shows a little notice at the bottom of its results. Here’s an example of how that looks for a copyright removal action in the US:

Google tells us that will show disclosure when URLs are removed under the new Right To Be Forgotten method in a manner similar to above. In other words, while the URL itself is forgotten, the fact that Google was made to forget it will be remembered.

To be very clear about this: if someone asks for a URL to be removed from the listings for their name, and that’s approved, the URL will go away — but anyone who looks at the bottom of the result will know that they must have asked for something to be removed.

It’s also likely that Google will provide a link to ChillingEffects.org, as it does with many other types of censorship requests, where people can learn more about what is removed. Names wouldn’t be revealed, though those can be deducted from the search. The URLs taken-down probably wouldn’t be revealed. But it’s possible there would be some general explanation about what was removed or maybe why something was removed.

That will be interesting to see how it plays out. Someone who has, for example, a URL about a child pornography conviction removed might find that the disclosure could lead to something that says there was a removal relating to a legal conviction. People might not be able to tell what the conviction was specifically, nor as easily find details about it, but they’d know something happened. The Right To Be Forgotten might be more like The Right For Fuzzy Memory.

Google’s form also notes that publishers may be informed if a URL is removed from its results, plus local data protection authorities may also get this information.

What Type Of Material Will Get Removed?

Soon after the court ruling happened, people began making requests to Google, then some of those requests leaked out.

A politician who behaved badly, a business with bad reviews, someone convicted of having child pornography were some of the requests, as we covered in our earlier story:

10 People Who Want To Be Forgotten By Google, From An Attempted Murderer To A Cyberstalker

Since then, as said earlier, the requests have continued to flow-in. Google shared some fresh stats on these to the Financial Times, as part of a long interview (which you should read) with Google CEO Larry Page on Google complying with the ruling. Google said we could cite the stats as well:

Of the requests made to have material removed from Google UK and Google Ireland, the leading reason is to have material about a fraud or scam incident dropped, followed by URLs for arrests for violent or serious crime, followed by child pornography arrests:

Those stats are probably a pretty good indicator of what’s likely to follow, though now that a form is available, perhaps more mundane things like embarrassing pictures or blog posts might get requested more often for removal.

Also of interest are the countries making the request removals. Germany is by far the request removal leader. You might think that’s just because it has the EU’s biggest population. But France, which has nearly as many people as Germany, makes up only a tiny percentage of the requests:

40%: Germany (the EU’s most populous country, 80 million people)14%: Spain13%: UK3%: Italy2%: France (the EU’s second most populous country, 67 million people)Making The Judgment Calls & The Advisory Committee

As said, requests will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and it seems things that are deemed reasonable, especially from private individuals, will get dropped. Here’s Google’s official statement on the matter:

To comply with the recent European court ruling, we�ve made a webform available for Europeans to request the removal of results from our search engine. The court�s ruling requires Google to make difficult judgments about an individual�s right to be forgotten and the public�s right to know. We�re creating an expert advisory committee to take a thorough look at these issues. We�ll also be working with data protection authorities and others as we implement this ruling.

I bolded a key part, that Google has created an advisory group that will be reviewing the process. This group, according to Google, includes:

Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairDavid Drummond, Google’s chief legal counselFrank La Rue,�UN Special�Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom�of Opinion and ExpressionPeggy Valcke,�Director,�University of Leuven law schoolJose�Luis Pi�ar, the former head of Spain’s data protection authorityJimmy Wales, cofounder of WikipediaLuciano Floridi, an�information ethics�philosopher at Oxford Internet Institute

It’s important to note that removals will happen ahead of this advisory group making any decisions, according to our source. The removal process isn’t waiting for this group to meet and establish some criteria about what types of material can be removed.

Instead, this group will be assessing the process after it is already underway. Presumably, it may alter the process or better define it, after many requests have already been processed. It’s unclear if revisions might cause material previously removed to be restored to Google’s search listings, but that seems unlikely.

What About Bing & Yahoo?

The EU ruling isn’t just a Google-specific thing. Any search engine with a “presence” in the EU that can be defined by things such as having local sales offices must comply. That includes both Yahoo and Bing.

Yahoo says it’s developing its own solution, telling us:

In light of the European Court of Justice decision, our team is currently in the process of developing a solution for Yahoo users in Europe that we believe balances the important�privacy and freedom of expression interests.

As for Bing, it doesn’t appear to be taking any action to comply at all, from its statement:

Given the complexity of the ruling and the questions that remain about how it will implemented, it�s really too early to speculate on its impact on Google or anyone else for that matter. We remain hopeful that the courts and data protection authorities will strike the right balance between protecting privacy rights and the freedom of expression.

Ultimately, Bing will likely have to come up with a solution for two reasons: it’ll be legally required to and because since Yahoo uses Bing’s search results, Yahoo will need Bing to help it develop its own solution.

Both companies were also asked if they’ve had any requests received so far; neither answered that question.

Postscript: This story was updated about 12 hours after it was first posted to include statements from Yahoo and Bing.

Postscript 2: Google has released some basic stats on how the first day has gone:�Google�s Right To Be Forgotten Form Gets 12,000 Submissions On First Day.

Facebook Adds Audio Matching to Get You Posting More About TV - Facebook wants you to post about TV so much that it will now start writing the posts for you.�The social network today announced a new feature that uses a phone’s microphone to identify a show or movie airing on one of 160 TV channels. AdAge

Only 16% of B2B Companies Use Marketing Automation: Study -�A paltry 16% of North American B-to-B companies use marketing automation technology, according to new study by SiriusDecisions. AdAge

Facebook Introduces Privacy Checkup Tool, And New Default Privacy Settings - Today, Facebook announced some changes to their default privacy settings for new users, as well as a new privacy checkup tool for current users. Search Engine Journal

Facebook Introduces A New Way To Share Structured Status Updates -�Facebook on Wednesday announced an innovative way to share what you�re listening to or watching in a status update. Soon, iOS and Android users will be able to use their phone�s microphone � similar to Shazam � to get the app to hear a song or hear a show or movie and post that the user is doing that. Inside Facebook

40% Of Twitter Users Will Be In Asia-Pacific By 2018 [Study] - Twitter�s user base will increase rapidly in the next few years, largely driven by growth in the Asia-Pacific region. By 2018, Twitter will reach approximately 400 million users worldwide, with more than 40 percent of them in Asia-Pacific, eMarketer estimates. ClickZ

YouTube Introduces New Features to Empower Creators -�YouTube creators, those who make the videos that populate the site and participate in revenue sharing, haven�t always had it great. The pool of content creators gets larger every year, and dealing with the infrastructure can be problematic for some. But it looks like things are about to get a lot better, with new tools and crowdfunding options on the way. SocialTimes

Facebook Will Show Fewer Updates Automatically Posted By Third Party Apps -�News flash: People don’t like it when apps post Facebook updates on their behalf. As Facebook continues to clean up the news feed, the social giant said Tuesday that it will begin deprioritizing “implicit stories” that are automatically posted by third parties. Fast Company

Twitter�s Annual User Growth Rate Will Continue To Fall, According To Reports - Even though Twitter continues to add new users, its year over year growth is dropping according to a new report from eMarketer. According to eMarketer�s first-ever forecast of global Twitter users, Twitter�s user base will increase by 24.4% in 2014. If that number ends up being accurate, that means Twitter�s annual growth will continue the declining pattern it has been on for the past couple of years. Search Engine Journal

From our Online Marketing Community:

On Brand or Customer: What�s Your Content Marketing Center? #fusionmex, J-P De Clerck shared, “Thanks Lee for having made this! Glad you liked the Copernican view too Here’s the full foreword – Copernicus rocks and so do you ;)”

On the post How Content Curation and Tools Can Fit In Your Digital Marketing Mix, Dadie Host posted, “Lee Odden please accept my thanks and congratulations on the success of your recent work. I think your article is a great motivator for many students who need a little extra push. Our schools are doing a good job with limited resources, and they appreciate all the help we can give them. Thanks again for such uplifting coverage.”

The360man added “Great Article about how curated content needs to be done!”

And Ryan Biddulph said, “Curation rocks Lee because it gives my readers a change up. Variety, the spice of life and blogs Thanks for the share.”

What were the top online and digital marketing news stories for you this week?

Lumos Networks Corp. is a fiber-based service provider in the Mid-Atlantic region. The Company provides data, broadband, voice and Internet protocol (IP) services over fiber optic network. The Company offers a range of data and voice products supported by approximately 5,800 fiber-route miles in Virginia, West Virginia, and portions of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio and Kentucky. Its products and services include metro Ethernet, IP services, business advantage bundle, managed router service, broadband, voice services and Web hosting. On October 14, 2011, NTELOS Holdings Corp. announced a distribution date of October 31, 2011, for the spin-off of Lumos Networks Corp.

The Companys broadband services include Business DSL, Dedicated Business Service, Managed Router Services, Business Broadband XL, Business PC Services and Web Hosting. Its IP services include Integrated Access, IP Trunking, IP Centrex and IP Phones. Its voice service include Business Voice, Busin ess Advantage Bundle, nTouch, Intelligent Messaging, Simultaneous Ring, Conference Calling and Long Distance. Its data services include Metro Ethernet and Quality of Service. Lumos Networks Business DSL provides up to six megabits per second downstream and one megabit per second upstream. Its managed router support service equipment includes staging, installation, configuration, and maintenance while support provides around-the-clock monitoring, management and trouble resolution and direct access to networking experts. Its Business Broadband XL offers a selection of high download speeds. Lumos Networks' Integrated Access solution can integrate local voice, long distance, voicemail, and broadband Internet access. Lumos Networks nTouch brings voicemail linking IP Centrex and nTelos Wireless phone.

Advisors' Opinion:

[By Jake L'Ecuyer]

Top losers in the sector included NQ Mobile (NYSE: NQ), off 5.8 percent, and Lumos Netwo! rks (NASDAQ: LMOS), down 2.9 percent.

Lumos Networks Corp. (NASDAQ: LMOS) is a leading provider of fiber-based bandwidth infrastructure and IP services in key mid-Atlantic markets. It announced last month it had launched its cloud-based hosted call center solution, which provides best-in-class automated call distribution, integrated voice response and call reporting to help organizations manage call volumes more effectively and efficiently. The service operates over Lumos’s carrier-grade, premium optical network, which provides high-speed, resilient access to the call-center cloud service. The consensus price target for the stock is $20.50. Investors are paid a reasonable 2.7% dividend. Lumos closed Thursday at $20.77.

[By Jake L'Ecuyer]

Top losers in the sector included NQ Mobile (NYSE: NQ), off 5.8 percent, and Lumos Networks (NASDAQ: LMOS), down 2.9 percent.

10 Best International Stocks To Buy Right Now: AVEO Pharmaceuticals Inc.(AVEO)

AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, engages in the discovery and development of cancer therapeutics. The company?s lead product candidate, Tivozanib (AV-951), is a novel, highly potent and selective oral inhibitor of the vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF, receptors 1, 2, and 3. It is also leading the clinical development of AV-299, which includes conducting multiple Phase I clinical trials and preparing for the conduct of multiple Phase II clinical trials. The company?s product candidate in preclinical development is AV-203, a potent ErbB3 antibody that has demonstrated efficacy in vivo. It has strategic partnerships with OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Merck, and Biogen Idec, Inc. AVEO Pharmaceuticals was formerly known as GenPath Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and changed its name to AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in March 2005. The company was founded in 2001 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Advisors' Opinion:

[By Sean Williams]

What: Shares of AVEO Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AVEO ) , a cancer therapeutics company, collapsed as much as 27% following the release of briefing documents today in anticipation of AVEO's meeting with the Food and Drug Administration panel on Thursday.

Will AVEO be on target? The other FDA decision that should have the attention of biotech investors this week is AVEO Pharmaceuticals' (NASDAQ: AVEO ) Tivozanib, which is set to go before the FDA's review panel on Thursday.

This morning, I noticed a lot of buzz around a possible Google Penguin update. The SEO space was noticing huge changes in the search results from previously penalized sites, many that were impacted by the Google Penguin update.

The Google Penguin algorithm targets sites trying to manipulate their search results through link building efforts that they deem as unnatural. This is not the manual actions for unnatural links but rather an algorithm that detects these types of links automatically.

A Google spokesperson told us at Search Engine Land, there is no Penguin or other spam efforts going on now. So this update, at least according to Google, is not spam related. In fact, Google made it sound like there was no update at all.

There were many webmasters talking about changes in rankings over the past 24-48 hours, independent of the Panda 4.0 update from a week ago. Most of them said the update impacted their sites that had Penguin issues. But not all were convinced that it was indeed Penguin related. But either way, many SEOs and webmasters noticed ranking changes.

Here is one graph from a site that had an algorithm penalty that recovered in the past couple days:

Other webmasters shared their analytics with me, showing huge changes in traffic as well. While others just claimed Penguin or other recoveries.

When I responded to some SEOs about Google saying there was no Penguin or otherwise update, some SEOs said they don’t believe it. Here are some tweets from SEOs:

@rustybrick My analytics & conversions call B.S. :)

� Rae Hoffman (@sugarrae) May 28, 2014

@rustybrick @sugarrae Very hard to believe this is not a major update… Seeing crazy swings across accounts. Maybe not Penguin, but…

� Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) May 28, 2014

Again, Google has claimed there was no Penguin or spam related update done around this time frame.

Craft Brew Alliance, Inc., incorporated on May 4, 1981, is an independent craft brewer. The Company is engaged in brewing, marketing and selling of craft beers in the United States. The Company operates two segments: Beer related operations and Pubs and Other. Beer related operations include the brewing and sale of craft beers from its five breweries. Pubs and Other operations primarily include its five pubs, four, of which are located adjacent to its breweries. The Company brews its Widmer Brothers, Redhook and Kona beers in each of its three mainland production breweries, including New Hampshire Brewery, Oregon Brewery and Washington Brewery. The Company also owns and operates a small manual style brewery, primarily used for small batch production at the Rose Quarter in Portland, Oregon. The Company's beer portfolio is consisted of the Widmer Brothers, Redhook and Kona brand families. On May 2, 2011, the Company sold 42% interest in Fulton Street Brewery, LLC.

The Company's Widmer Brothers Hefeweizen is a golden, cloudy wheat beer with a pronounced citrus aroma and flavor. This beer is usually served with a lemon slice. Its Drifter Pale Ale is brewed with generous amounts of summit hops. It also includes Drop Top Amber Ale and Rotator India Pale Ale. Initial beers in the series 924 series include the Nelson Imperial IPA and the Pitch Black IPA, which is a Pacific Northwest twist on a traditional IPA, brewed in the style of a Cascadian Dark. Beers in this brand are offered as a draft product and as a four pack for bottles. Widmer Brothers beers include Brothers' Reserve and Alchemy Project. Widmer Brothers seasonal beers are Citra Blonde, Okto, Brrr and W series.

The Redhook family of beers is consisted of sessionable (lower alcohol by volume) and approachable beers. Its Long Hammer IPA is the beer wit! hin the brand family and is English pub-style bitter ale with a bold hop aroma and profile that is not overpow eringly bitter. Its

Redhook Pilsner is a crisp, easy-! drinking, golden lager that is modeled after beers originally brewed in Plzen, Czechoslovakia. Redhook ESB is rich, full-bodied amber ale with a smooth flavor profile featuring toasted malts and a pleasant finishing sweetness. Its Copperhook Ale is copper-colored ale with caramel notes and a clean refreshing finish. The Company's Blueline Series brand is offering from the Redhook brand family for the West Coast beer drinker. These beers are hand crafted by the brewers and are available at its Washington Brewery pub, as well as at select restaurants, bottle shops and public houses in the Seattle, Washington area. Its Brewery Backyard Series is produced at its New Hampshire brewery as a draft product available at the brewery's pub and at select local establishments. Redhook seasonal beers include Nut Brown Ale, Winterhook Winter Ale and Wit.

The Company's Kona Beers brand family is consisted of beers that deliver the essence of the Hawaiian Islands that is A lways Aloha. The Company's Longboard Island Lager is a traditionally brewed lager with a delicate, slightly spicy hop aroma that is complimented by a fresh, malt-forward flavor and a smooth, refreshing finish. Its Fire Rock Pale Ale is a crisp, Hawaiian Style pale ale with pronounced citrus and floral hop aromas and flavors that are backed up by a generous malt profile.

Kona seasonal beers include Koko Brown Ale, American brown ale with a deep amber color and rich mahogany hues. This ale has a smoky, roasted nut aroma and flavor, with a coconut twist. Koko Brown Ale is Kona's spring seasonal. Its Pipeline Porter is smooth and dark, with a roasty aroma and earthy flavor. This ale is brewed with fresh 100% Kona coffee. Its Wailua Wheat is golden, sun-colored ale with a bright, citrusy flavor. This beer is brewed with a touch of tropical passion! fruit to! impart a slightly tart and crisp finish. Kona offers two variety packs: Island Hopper variety 12-packs and Big Kahuna variety 24-packs. Both packages include the brewe! ry's Lo! ngboard Island Lager along with Fire Rock Pale Ale and then two of its Aloha series seasonal offerings: Koko Brown, Wailua Wheat and Pipeline Porter.

The Company competes with Heineken, Corona Extra and Guinness.

Advisors' Opinion:

[By Louis Navellier]

The fantastic performance and growth of this company was noted by Portfolio Grader back in August and the stock was upgraded to an A. Shares of SAM stock remain a “strong buy” at the current price. When it comes to beer stocks to buy now, this is one of the most tempting.

Best Booze Stocks to Buy Now - Craft Brew Alliance (BREW)

Craft Brew Alliance (BREW) makes craft beers under three very popular brands for beer aficionados. The Widmar Brothers, Redhook and Kona brands of beer have all received rave reviews … and that’s just one reason BREW is one of the best beer stocks to buy now.

[By Chris Katje]

Publicly traded Craft Brew Alliance (BREW) is the owner of three key craft beer brands. The company, through two mergers, owns the brands Redhook, Widmer, and Kona. One of those brands (Redhook) has a partnership coming with Buffalo Wild Wings that could create coverage of the company's stock and blow revenue estimates out of the water.

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/best-beverage-companies-to-buy-for-2015.html

For over 1,000 years people used to think the Earth was the center of the Universe, not unlike how many companies still think the corporate brand should be the center of their marketing messages.

As with Copernicus’s 16th century observations about the Earth moving around the Sun, modern marketers in Europe and all over the world are realizing that the customer is at the center for content and messaging, not just the brand.

Some companies, agencies and consultants have made significant progress in this view of content marketing and we reached out to a number of them that will be presenting at the upcoming Content Marketing Conference Europe.

The question? We asked: What is one of the most important ways content marketing creates value for customers?

17 international content marketers shared their answers in this new conference eBook and all will be presenting at�the�Antwerp, Belgium based conference coming up on June 10th. This is a can’t miss event. I was luck to have presented at the 2012 conference and it was a great exchange of ideas with a smart audience from all over the Benelux region and Western Europe.

Keynotes will be delivered by the famous best selling author and keynote speaker, Jay Baer, plus myself, Mike Corak from Ethology, Doug Kessler from Velocity Partners and Danny Devriendt from Universal Media.

Top 5 Up And Coming Companies To Watch For 2015: U.S. Global Investors Inc.(GROW)

U.S. Global Investors, Inc. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to investment companies. It also provides its services to pooled investment vehicles. The firm manages mutual funds for its clients. It invests in the public equity and fixed income markets across the globe. The firm invests in value stocks to make its equity investments. It employs a fundamental and technical analysis with bottom-up and top-down analysis to make its investments. The firm typically invests in companies specializing in gold and natural resources. U.S. Global Investors, Inc. was founded in 1968 and is based in San Antonio, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

[By Morgan Myrmo]

One business that is ripe for takeover is U.S. Global Investors (GROW), a micro-cap asset manager based in San Antonio, Texas. The company specializes in the management of gold, mineral, resource and high-growth emerging market mutual funds. U.S. Global fund values have been hammered over the last five years as the current economic recovery has yet to reach commodities and emerging markets.

Nine days ago when Google released Panda 4.0�– which aims to filter out “thin” content from top rankings –�we focused our attention on the big Winners & Losers charts, Since then, some have noted that press releases may have also been hit big time.

Using SearchMetrics, I looked at the top Press Release sites and checked if they lost any SEO visibility on a large scale since Panda 4.0 hit, and PRWeb.com, PR Newswire, BusinessWire and PRLog all seem to have lost significant rankings in Google.

PRNewsWire.com seems to have shown a significant drop in SEO visibility, dropping ~63% after Panda 4.0 was released:

PRLog.org saw a big drop in mid 2013 but then another dip right after this past Panda update:

Sean Malseed from SEER Interactive used SEM Rush metrics to document a lot of the same patterns I documented with SearchMetrics data. They also documented specific cases, of specific press releases that recently ranked well and now are no longer on the first page.

Only Losers Really Know If They Lost

As we said in the Winners and Losers report,�lists like this aren’t perfect. The sites above may have had gains and drops for other reasons; less visibility this week because last week they were visible for different news stories, for example.

It’s also worth remembering that this is a sample of search terms. The only way to really know if any update has hurt or helped you is to look at your search-driven traffic from Google, rather than particular rankings or lists like this, which have become popular after Google updates. If you’ve seen a significant increase, you’ve probably been rewarded by it. A big decrease? Then you were probably hit.

Euronet Worldwide, Inc. provides payment and transaction processing and distribution solutions to financial institutions, retailers, service providers, and individual consumers. The company operates in three segments: EFT Processing, epay, and Money Transfer. The EFT Processing segment provides electronic payment solutions consisting of automated teller machine (ATM) network participation, outsourced ATM and point-of-sale (POS) management solutions, credit and debit card outsourcing, card issuing, and merchant acquiring services; advertising, customer relationship management, currency conversion, mobile top-up, bill payment, fraud management, and foreign remittance payout services; and integrated software solutions for electronic payments and transaction delivery systems. As of December 31, 2011, it processed transactions for a network of 14,224 ATMs and approximately 57,000 POS terminals in Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia Pacific. The epay segment engages in the ele ctronic distribution of prepaid mobile airtime and other electronic payment products, and provides collection services for various payment products, cards, and services. This segment operates a network of approximately 615,000 POS terminals to enable electronic processing of prepaid mobile airtime top-up services and other electronic payment products in Europe, the Middle East, the Asia Pacific, North America, and South America, as well as distributes vouchers and physical gifts in Europe. The Money Transfer segment provides consumer-to-consumer money transfer services through a network of sending agents and company-owned stores in North America and Europe; customers bill payment services; payment alternatives, such as money orders and prepaid debit cards; check cashing services for various issued checks; and foreign currency exchange services. The company serves customers in approximately 150 countries worldwide. Euronet Worldwide, Inc. was founded in! 1994 and is headquart e red in Leawood, Kansas.

Advisors' Opinion:

[By John Udovich]

Small cap money transfer stock Euronet Worldwide, Inc (NASDAQ: EEFT) and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc (NYSE: WMT) have announced an exclusive money transfer service called "Walmart-2-Walmart, meaning its time to take a closer look at the stock along with the performance of peers like Moneygram International Inc (NASDAQ: MGI), Xoom Corp (NASDAQ: XOOM) and The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) which fell 17.68%, 4.32% and 4.98%, respectively.

Google has announced they have added a new feature to the Fetch as Googlebot tool in Google Webmaster Tools. Now, you can see how Googlebot renders the page.

Instead of using the Fetch as Googlebot to just see an output of code and HTML, Google will show a visual representation of what Googlebot sees. It will also show you errors on what resources Googlebot was unable to access, preventing them from fetching and rendering everything on the page.

Here is the new “fetch and render” button on the Fetch as Google feature:

After you have a page to Fetch and Render, it will take a few minutes and show you a status complete indicator. The indicator may show “partial” rendering, if resources are being blocked from Googlebot’s crawl. Either way, clicking on it will show you the rendering results.

You also are able to specify the device type you want to fetch and render as, such as desktop, smartphone or other devices.

Here is how the desktop version may look, notice the crawl issues below. Also notice the tabs for both “fetching” and “rendering.”

Fetching shows you the code, HTML, etc, while rendering shows you the results as a web page visualization.

Here is a mobile sample:

Google recently announced more Javascript debugging tools coming to Google Webmaster Tools, this is that tool, Google was talking about. It now clearly shows what resources are being blocked, such as Javascript, CSS and so forth.

Maria Belen Rodriguez is an�Argentina-born model, actress and TV personality who now lives and works in Italy. She successfully sued Google and Yahoo in 2006 in her native�country, alleging that her likeness was wrongfully appropriated by porn sites and then indexed/republished or disseminated by search engines.

There was an alleged sex tape involving�Belen Rodriguez (in roughly 2011), which is either the source or a source of the porn-related search results tied to her name.�Apparently the porn sites that have damaged her reputation were not sued originally.

The precise legal claims made by Belen Rodriquez are not entirely clear. They probably involved misappropriation of her likeness and related damage to her reputation. I haven’t been able to locate the complaint.

She initially won a judgment of roughly�$15,000 in 2010, in the Argentina action. That was subsequently reduced to just over $6,000 and now the case has gone up to the�Argentinean Supreme Court — presumably over the amount of the damages award.

In one way of looking at it this is another instance of individuals or governments trying to control public perceptions by altering or censoring search results (see China, Pakistan, India, among others). This case is also a first cousin of the European “right to be forgotten,” dealing with the rights of individuals to control what appears about them in search results.

Because the underlying claims and facts are a bit unclear — beyond the fact that a “Maria Belen Rodriguez”�search (with modifiers) does bring porn search results — it’s difficult to know how to react. I certainly understand�Belen Rodriguez’s desire to vindicate her name and reputation. However she should have sued (or attempted to sue) the porn sites involved.

Suing only search engines, as in the Spanish case that led to the “right to be forgotten” decision, is highly problematic. And if the decision and damages award stands it will create more litigation against Google and search engines generally when people have a colorable legal claim against third parties whose results are indexed.

Google and Yahoo are targets (the suit pre-dates Bing) because they facilitate discovery of information and because they’re big companies that can be located easily and cannot avoid jurisdiction. However it’s dangerous and ultimately bad for society to hold them legally responsible for wrongs committed by third parties over which they have no control.

Maria Belen Rodriguez is an�Argentina-born model, actress and TV personality who now lives and works in Italy. She successfully sued Google and Yahoo in 2006 in her native�country, alleging that her likeness was wrongfully appropriated by porn sites and then indexed/republished or disseminated by search engines.

There was an alleged sex tape involving�Belen Rodriguez (in roughly 2011), which is either the source or a source of the porn-related search results tied to her name.�Apparently the porn sites that have damaged her reputation were not sued originally.

The precise legal claims made by Belen Rodriquez are not entirely clear. They probably involved misappropriation of her likeness and related damage to her reputation. I haven’t been able to locate the complaint.

She initially won a judgment of roughly�$15,000 in 2010, in the Argentina action. That was subsequently reduced to just over $6,000 and now the case has gone up to the�Argentinean Supreme Court — presumably over the amount of the damages award.

In one way of looking at it this is another instance of individuals or governments trying to control public perceptions by altering or censoring search results (see China, Pakistan, India, among others). This case is also a first cousin of the European “right to be forgotten,” dealing with the rights of individuals to control what appears about them in search results.

Because the underlying claims and facts are a bit unclear — beyond the fact that a “Maria Belen Rodriguez”�search (with modifiers) does bring porn search results — it’s difficult to know how to react. I certainly understand�Belen Rodriguez’s desire to vindicate her name and reputation. However she should have sued (or attempted to sue) the porn sites involved.

Suing only search engines, as in the Spanish case that led to the “right to be forgotten” decision, is highly problematic. And if the decision and damages award stands it will create more litigation against Google and search engines generally when people have a colorable legal claim against third parties whose results are indexed.

Google and Yahoo are targets (the suit pre-dates Bing) because they facilitate discovery of information and because they’re big companies that can be located easily and cannot avoid jurisdiction. However it’s dangerous and ultimately bad for society to hold them legally responsible for wrongs committed by third parties over which they have no control.

Google has announced they have added a new feature to the Fetch as Googlebot tool in Google Webmaster Tools. Now, you can see how Googlebot renders the page.

Instead of using the Fetch as Googlebot to just see an output of code and HTML, Google will show a visual representation of what Googlebot sees. It will also show you errors on what resources Googlebot was unable to access, preventing them from fetching and rendering everything on the page.

Here is the new “fetch and render” button on the Fetch as Google feature:

After you have a page to Fetch and Render, it will take a few minutes and show you a status complete indicator. The indicator may show “partial” rendering, if resources are being blocked from Googlebot’s crawl. Either way, clicking on it will show you the rendering results.

You also are able to specify the device type you want to fetch and render as, such as desktop, smartphone or other devices.

Here is how the desktop version may look, notice the crawl issues below. Also notice the tabs for both “fetching” and “rendering.”

Fetching shows you the code, HTML, etc, while rendering shows you the results as a web page visualization.

Here is a mobile sample:

Google recently announced more Javascript debugging tools coming to Google Webmaster Tools, this is that tool, Google was talking about. It now clearly shows what resources are being blocked, such as Javascript, CSS and so forth.

Google has announced they have added a new feature to the Fetch as Googlebot tool in Google Webmaster Tools. Now, you can see how Googlebot renders the page.

Instead of using the Fetch as Googlebot to just see an output of code and HTML, Google will show a visual representation of what Googlebot sees. It will also show you errors on what resources Googlebot was unable to access, preventing them from fetching and rendering everything on the page.

Here is the new “fetch and render” button on the Fetch as Google feature:

After you have a page to Fetch and Render, it will take a few minutes and show you a status complete indicator. The indicator may show “partial” rendering, if resources are being blocked from Googlebot’s crawl. Either way, clicking on it will show you the rendering results.

You also are able to specify the device type you want to fetch and render as, such as desktop, smartphone or other devices.

Here is how the desktop version may look, notice the crawl issues below. Also notice the tabs for both “fetching” and “rendering.”

Fetching shows you the code, HTML, etc, while rendering shows you the results as a web page visualization.

Here is a mobile sample:

Google recently announced more Javascript debugging tools coming to Google Webmaster Tools, this is that tool, Google was talking about. It now clearly shows what resources are being blocked, such as Javascript, CSS and so forth.

How can publishers receive a greater percentage of search traffic from Google than the market share Google has in the U.S.?�It’s likely due to what I call “The Recirculation Gap” and how�Google probably “recirculates” searches back into itself less than Yahoo and Bing.

Every month for ages, it seems the same. comScore releases a “U.S. Search Engine Rankings” report that shows Google with around two-thirds of the market. That suggests to some that publishers should get two-thirds of their search traffic from Google. But they don’t. Publishers commonly report getting more than this, sometimes much more.

This oddity is in the news again after being largely forgotten for years, because the folks at Conductor are out with a “Why You Shouldn�t Trust comScore�s Numbers for Search Engine Market Share” white paper.

The paper notes that based on Conductor’s analysis of 100 million search engine-related visits to its clients’ web sites, Google sends 85% of search traffic, not 68% as you might think based on comScore’s most recent figures. Both Yahoo and Bing send less traffic than some might expect:

The issue is that Conductor is doing an apples-to-oranges comparison. Or maybe tangerine-to-oranges. comScore’s figures might seem to be measuring the same thing as Conductor’s, but they’re not.

comScore: Measuring Searches “Pre-click” Or “Before-The-Click”

The figures from comScore look at the actual number of searches happening at each of the major search engines.

It doesn’t matter where someone goes after clicking on a search listing. comScore is rooted in the “before-the-click” behavior. Any search gets counted; destination doesn’t matter.

Conductor: Measuring Traffic “Post-Click” or “After-The-Click”

The figures from Conductor look at the traffic publishers receive from search engines.

Here, the post-click activity is crucial. If someone does a search on a search engine and clicks on a link that leads them back into that search engine, Conductor can’t measure that.

The Recirculation Gap

As a result, Conductor is not getting the full picture of what’s happening with all those searches that comScore is seeing. To me, that’s the primary reason why a “gap” seems to appear.

As I said earlier, this issue is ages old. That last time it got serious attention was in 2006, when Rich Skrenta wrote about Google’s “true market” share being 70%, when measurement service Hitwise was reporting it as 40%. And as I wrote about it at the time:

But a search for something on Yahoo Sports? That might be counted as a “search,” and it is � but it�s not the type of search that would register with site-based metrics. The searcher might stay entirely inside Yahoo.

I’d written and spoken about the gap even before then and talked about how some of it is probably due to recirculation back into a search engine. So let me finally put a name on it: “The Recirculation Gap” along with a definition:

The Recirculation Gap: The difference between the share of searches a search engine handles and traffic it sends to third parties.

Search engines with the biggest position gap likely favor themselves more. That makes Bing the leader among the major U.S. search engines, with a 13% gap.�Google, as has been the case for years whenever I’ve looked at such gaps, favors itself the least. It has a -18% gap.

Is There Another Reason?

Of course, there could be other reasons for the gap beyond recirculation, though what those are, no one has seriously explored over the years.

I did ask comScore freshly about this. One thing it suggested was that mobile might be a factor, since it says Google has a higher share of mobile search than compared to desktop figures. And those comScore figures above are desktop-only.

So when will comScore add mobile figures to its regular reporting? It’s something in development, I was told, but there’s no set date.

In the end, both comScore’s and Conductor’s figures tell you�the same thing: Google is important. If you’re after search traffic, you can’t ignore Google. It’s a huge slice of the search pie.

Bitauto Holdings Limited provides Internet content and marketing services for the automotive industry primarily in the People?s Republic of China. The company offers subscription services to new automobile dealers that enable them to list pricing and promotional information on its bitauto.com Website and partner Websites, and to interact with consumers through its virtual call center, as well as provides advertising service to dealers and automakers on its bitauto.com Website. It also offers listing services to used automobile dealers, which enable them to display used automobile inventory information through its ucar.cn Website and partner Websites; and advertising services to used automobile dealers and automakers with certified pre-owned automobile programs on its ucar.cn Website. In addition, the company provides digital marketing solutions, including Website creation and maintenance, online public relationship, online marketing campaigns, and advertising agent service s. Bitauto Holdings Limited was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People?s Republic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:

[By Kevin Cook , Zacks Investment Research]

There are many ways to play the growth of China’s middle class and BitAuto Holdings (BITA) may offer a combination of two of the best: cars and the Internet.

[By Victor Selva]

The firm is currently Zacks Rank # 3–Hold, and it also has a longer-term recommendation of "Neutral". A Hold rating indicates that the stock, over the next 1 to 3 months, will perform at an annualized rate of 10.56%, very similar to the S&P 500. For investors looking for a better Zacks Rank, Bitauto Holdings Limited (BITA), E-Commerce China Dangdang Inc. (DANG) and Vipshop Holdings Limited (VIPS) could be better options.

There are many types of content a business can create to attract, engage and convert customers:�Evergreen, Repurposed, Curated and Co-Created.

Of those content types, curated content�offers numerous benefits that many companies are not taking advantage of.�While content curation�has grown in popularity since we first started writing about it in 2010,�the question remains:�Does it belong in your digital marketing mix?

The practice of collecting and filtering information and then adding value to it has been around a long time. Classic blogging often follows this “oreo cookie” format of sandwiching an excerpt of someone else’s information with your own. Doing so on a continuous basis is content curation and is as old as blogging itself.

I think there are�three main reasons for the increased popularity of content curation for marketing:

1. Efficiency – There are numerous content curation software providers that tout the benefits of scouring the web for themed content and pulling it into a blog where it can be curated according to how the brand wants to be known and useful to a particular audience. Doing this manually is extremely labor intensive, let along writing 100% original content on a regular basis.

2. People Filters vs. Search Engines – While search engines are superior at indexing large quantities of data, sorting and presenting the most relevant information, they do not add value outside of discovery. Curation brings the “human” into the equation in ways that algorithms are hard pressed to match in terms of filtering and especially niche organization, adding context and perspective to content.

Even search engines like Google�rely on human quality raters to augment their algorithmic efforts to determine the best content. Curation is based on that type of filtering and as a result, people want it.

3. Information Overload – More information is created digitally every day than ever before and many consumers feel lost in a sea of data and content. Thoughtful curation of content stands out as readers connect with the personality and perspective of the curating source that brings them useful information from a variety of sources with context and perspective.

With the popularity of content curation comes tools to make the business of discovering, organizing, annotating and publishing curated content efficient and scalable. �There are many content curation software tools to choose from and many will serve most marketers’ needs.�But what features should you look for in content curation software?

The ability to pull data from a variety of sources in real-time and the ability to pre-filter with keywords, topics and suggest related topicsBringing discovered content into a queue that allows you to moderate what gets published and add your own commentary to is useful’The option of auto-publishing everything that is discovered according to topical filters, specified sources (sites, people, publications)Search engine friendly features like being able to have unique title tags from on-page titles and embedding author rel tags to the original content authorExporting to a newsletter, syndicating to other blogsBuilt in social scheduling and amplification by auto posting to social accounts like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+Integration with short url services for customized URLs and trackingWeb analytics for curated content performance tracking�- ideally through a�dashboard

Besides sourcing, filtering, scheduling and publishing, content curation software should also make it easy to promote content, interact with readers via comments, feature top content, top engagers and social shares. Amplification of content is essential to extend reach.

Measurement in terms of subscribers, engagement, distribution, inbound links, social shares and a tie-in to analytics like Google Analytics makes curation software useful as well.

To my knowledge, no content curation service does all of these things, so I am looking forward to seeing suggestions in the comments. But here are some tools to start with:

Free�tools: Storify, paper.li, pearltrees,�list.ly�and scoop.it

Paid tools: Curata, Curationsoft and publishthis

Original or Curated Content Isn’t the Question – It’s About Thought Leadership

Neither�curation or original content will become all things to all people. Original content to be curated needs to come form somewhere�and for companies that want to take a leadership position in their industry, a commitment to creating original content is a necessity. Leaders have opinions. They have interesting things to say. Market Leaders do not have a problem with creating original content.

That said, augmenting original content with curated content is perfectly effective. Getting the most out of content curation means understanding what’s possible and best practices. You can be super sophisticated with a multi-channel scheme, or basic.�For example, with Online Marketing�Blog’s�original content published 3-4 times a week, we curate industry news each Friday. People love to see what stories we’ve picked as worth reading and our commentary about those stories.

With thought leadership goals in mind, it’s reasonable to start out by curating industry news and resources to become the “go to source” for all things relevant to the topics your target audience cares about. As the community grows, an evolution into a original content and curated content mix will provide the quality, leadership and efficiency that brands need to succeed.

Content Curation�Skills & Integration

Curation tools are powerful and essential for social content sourcing and creation. Curation is also very useful for surfacing real-time trends and the appearance of topics across multiple media, channels and platforms.

A human curator definitely brings the skills needed for modern content editing, but obviously, there’s more to editing than sourcing, annotating and promoting content. Storytelling and connecting brand narrative along with creative execution is increasingly important for the corporate editorial function. Those are skills not always present with curators, but maybe they should be. Integration between original and curated content is essential for optimizing customer experience.

How are you using content curation in your digital marketing? What are your favorite content curation software, platforms or tools?

There are many types of content a business can create to attract, engage and convert customers:�Evergreen, Repurposed, Curated and Co-Created.

Of those content types, curated content�offers numerous benefits that many companies are not taking advantage of.�While content curation�has grown in popularity since we first started writing about it in 2010,�the question remains:�Does it belong in your digital marketing mix?

The practice of collecting and filtering information and then adding value to it has been around a long time. Classic blogging often follows this “oreo cookie” format of sandwiching an excerpt of someone else’s information with your own. Doing so on a continuous basis is content curation and is as old as blogging itself.

I think there are�three main reasons for the increased popularity of content curation for marketing:

1. Efficiency – There are numerous content curation software providers that tout the benefits of scouring the web for themed content and pulling it into a blog where it can be curated according to how the brand wants to be known and useful to a particular audience. Doing this manually is extremely labor intensive, let along writing 100% original content on a regular basis.

2. People Filters vs. Search Engines – While search engines are superior at indexing large quantities of data, sorting and presenting the most relevant information, they do not add value outside of discovery. Curation brings the “human” into the equation in ways that algorithms are hard pressed to match in terms of filtering and especially niche organization, adding context and perspective to content.

Even search engines like Google�rely on human quality raters to augment their algorithmic efforts to determine the best content. Curation is based on that type of filtering and as a result, people want it.

3. Information Overload – More information is created digitally every day than ever before and many consumers feel lost in a sea of data and content. Thoughtful curation of content stands out as readers connect with the personality and perspective of the curating source that brings them useful information from a variety of sources with context and perspective.

With the popularity of content curation comes tools to make the business of discovering, organizing, annotating and publishing curated content efficient and scalable. �There are many content curation software tools to choose from and many will serve most marketers’ needs.�But what features should you look for in content curation software?

The ability to pull data from a variety of sources in real-time and the ability to pre-filter with keywords, topics and suggest related topicsBringing discovered content into a queue that allows you to moderate what gets published and add your own commentary to is useful’The option of auto-publishing everything that is discovered according to topical filters, specified sources (sites, people, publications)Search engine friendly features like being able to have unique title tags from on-page titles and embedding author rel tags to the original content authorExporting to a newsletter, syndicating to other blogsBuilt in social scheduling and amplification by auto posting to social accounts like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+Integration with short url services for customized URLs and trackingWeb analytics for curated content performance tracking�- ideally through a�dashboard

Besides sourcing, filtering, scheduling and publishing, content curation software should also make it easy to promote content, interact with readers via comments, feature top content, top engagers and social shares. Amplification of content is essential to extend reach.

Measurement in terms of subscribers, engagement, distribution, inbound links, social shares and a tie-in to analytics like Google Analytics makes curation software useful as well.

To my knowledge, no content curation service does all of these things, so I am looking forward to seeing suggestions in the comments. But here are some tools to start with:

Free�tools: Storify, paper.li, pearltrees,�list.ly�and scoop.it

Paid tools: Curata, Curationsoft and publishthis

Original or Curated Content Isn’t the Question – It’s About Thought Leadership

Neither�curation or original content will become all things to all people. Original content to be curated needs to come form somewhere�and for companies that want to take a leadership position in their industry, a commitment to creating original content is a necessity. Leaders have opinions. They have interesting things to say. Market Leaders do not have a problem with creating original content.

That said, augmenting original content with curated content is perfectly effective. Getting the most out of content curation means understanding what’s possible and best practices. You can be super sophisticated with a multi-channel scheme, or basic.�For example, with Online Marketing�Blog’s�original content published 3-4 times a week, we curate industry news each Friday. People love to see what stories we’ve picked as worth reading and our commentary about those stories.

With thought leadership goals in mind, it’s reasonable to start out by curating industry news and resources to become the “go to source” for all things relevant to the topics your target audience cares about. As the community grows, an evolution into a original content and curated content mix will provide the quality, leadership and efficiency that brands need to succeed.

Content Curation�Skills & Integration

Curation tools are powerful and essential for social content sourcing and creation. Curation is also very useful for surfacing real-time trends and the appearance of topics across multiple media, channels and platforms.

A human curator definitely brings the skills needed for modern content editing, but obviously, there’s more to editing than sourcing, annotating and promoting content. Storytelling and connecting brand narrative along with creative execution is increasingly important for the corporate editorial function. Those are skills not always present with curators, but maybe they should be. Integration between original and curated content is essential for optimizing customer experience.

How are you using content curation in your digital marketing? What are your favorite content curation software, platforms or tools?

Vestas Wind Systems A/S is a Denmark-based company active within the wind power industry. The Company operates within four business areas: Finance, Sales, Manufacturing & Global Sourcing, and Technology & Service Solutions. The Finance business area focuses on business support services. The Sales business area is divided into six geographical units: Americas, Asia Pacific & China, Central Europe, Mediterranean, Northern Europe and Offshore. The Manufacturing & Global Sourcing business area is engaged in the manufacturing of assembly, blades, components, controls and generators. The Technology & Service Solutions business area is responsible for the engineering solutions, platform and product management, as well as service engineering, among others. As of December 31, 2012, the Company operated globally through a network of subsidiaries located in Denmark, Germany, Italy, China, the United States, Spain, Estonia, Sweden and Norway. Advisors' Opinion:

[By Pato Kehoe]

Within the power infrastructure segment, GE is especially keen on advancing in clean-energy products, such as gas and wind turbines. Wind turbines have contributed significantly to generating a solid competitive advantage, even allowing the firm to surpass the Danish industry giant Vestas Wind Systems (VWS), thanks to superior customer care and manufacturing expertise. Hence, the road seems paved for continued success in this new industry sector, which is bound to continue growing as clean energy becomes more popular.

Widespread dissatisfaction among public and political figures with the existing antitrust settlement between Google and the European Commission appears to be putting the settlement in danger. According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the run up to this week’s�European Parliament elections saw an increase in “rhetoric against the settlement with Google.”

The article depicts an intense, behind the scenes lobbying effort by both sides: on the one hand Google is trying to bolster the settlement while other officials want to revisit it and potentially start over. The rhetoric and behavior also suggests that some European officials, in addition to their general animus toward Google, may also be seeking to retaliate against the company in the wake of NSA spying allegations.

In the just-concluded European Parliamentary�elections, anti-EU, anti-immigrant and�far-right candidates generally beat more moderate and mainstream European parties. It’s not clear how this will affect pressure on the European Commission to revise or scrap the existing settlement deal. I suspect however that things will not improve for Google.

The anti-Google rhetoric has been pretty overheated of late. For example, according to the WSJ:

The French government said it would push for a new European law later this year to classify Google and other Web giants like public utilities, forcing them to guarantee access to all of its services like phone operators. In Germany, Economics Minister Sigmar Gabriel advanced the idea of breaking apart Google in a German newspaper this week, though officials acknowledge such a move would require new laws.

While such a move isn’t imminent it suggests the degree to which European officials determined to do something dramatic, even radical, to “stop Google” and/or “level the playing field” on behalf of European companies.

We’ll have to wait and see what happens after the new European Parliament is seated and the lobbying process plays itself out in the European Commission over the next several months.

Integrating content across channels of discovery and engagement like social networks is an important part of optimizing for the customer experience.�In fact, according to the 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, 83% of marketers stated they have integrated their social media and traditional marketing activities.

Social Media contributes to all aspects of the customer journey, so integrating social media marketing with overall online marketing efforts just makes sense if you want to connect the dots for customers from education to action. But how?

I recently did an interview on this topic with Roza Tsvetkova of Komfo in Denmark and thought I’d share it here:

What is new when we talk about social integration? What is key to the integration of social media with the other online marketing efforts?

From a marketing perspective, social media is often treated as a distinct channel. Organizationally, the responsibility of social media has also been a focused responsibility within companies. What�s emerging within marketing and organizational structures is that social media is becoming more of a horizontal skill rather than a dedicated silo. Social is everyone�s responsibility.

Marketers are getting more sophisticated about incorporating social elements within their content marketing, public relations, search, email and advertising efforts to extend reach and engagement. As businesses learn more about how their target audiences discover and engage with digital content, they begin to integrate social media elements in the places were customers seek answers and interact.

The key to integration of social media with other online marketing efforts is to draw insights from the customer journey. Rather than publishing the same content across social channels, there would be an effort to understand the topics and content formats most appealing to the target audience for each social channel. With customer insight, marketers can do a better job of using integrated social media to optimize the buyer experience.

Can you tell us more on the concept of consistent customer experience/journey across social channels?

When brands do not coordinate content and media across social channels, the experience can be sub-optimial for customers. Reading a post on Twitter or LinkedIn with a link back to the company blog where there is very little additional information on the topic can be frustrating.

In many cases, different people create content for the same brand on different social channels with different voices and creative. A lack of coordination can result in information that does not connect the dots for readers.

When a brand and it�s products or services stand for something as a solution for their customers, the consistent communication or representation of those values across social channels creates a congruent and optimized experience for buyers. Where ever customers look for information about the problem they�re trying to solve, your brand should be �the best answer� – consistently.

This is not to say content and media cannot be different amongst channels. But if the brand voice and customer experience are consistent, it will create clarity, trust and inspire action more quickly.

Can you give us some practical tips on architecting the customer journey on social networks?

The model we use documents the relationship between the buyer and information in the form of Discovery, Consumption and Action. Use social media monitoring, web analytics, platform analytics and the tracking possible through Google Custom URLs to identify the behaviors and interests of your target audience on the social web. You can also ask them – through customer surveys.

Through that ongoing effort to understand the customer journey from awareness to consideration to purchase, the networks where your customers engage can be discovered. The types of content and media they prefer to consume can be identified and through testing, the offers that inspire them to act can be refined and optimized.

With that information, social content and engagement can be planned to make useful information known and available to buyers that ask their networks. That is how to architect social content across the customer journey. It is an ongoing effort and should be continuously tested and optimized.

You mentioned in your presentation that �optimizing for search is not dead, just different and more social�. Can you please elaborate on that?

The old practices of identifying a set list of target keywords, adding them to title tags and links from other sites has been mitigated by Google�s recent changes. SEO is different in that the focus should be on understanding the topics that customers care about most related to the buying cycle. Then distill those questions into related keywords to be used to flavor content to ensure it�s optimized for relevancy to the topic, not just for positioning in search results.

Rather than focusing on securing controlled links using the exact same keywords a business wants to rank for, modern SEO involves creating content worth linking to, promoting it through publicity and social channels to facilitate a natural variety of text references used to link to the site. Along with technical tasks related to markup and structured data, site architecture and page speed, aligning many people to a specific concept though content and inspiring social shares, engagement and links is modern SEO.

Social channels and links shared are important for network visibility of your brand�s content. Links within social shares could also be a factor for inclusion or even ranking with search engines. SEO is more social because social is so important for amplification of content others might link to.

How different is the customer journey for B2B and B2C companies on social media?

Only certain kinds of business purchases involve research and a decision by one person.. While that is the case for the vast majority of consumer purchases, most B2B buyers are committees or involve multiple people in the research and decision process. That means social network content and engagement should consider that there may be more than one person involved in the process. With B2C products and services, the tone and flavor of content can be more specifically directed at individual customers.

What do you think is the role of tools in the social integration? How do they affect the processes in a company and do they minimize silos?

Tools are essential to automate redundant processes, enable scale and maintain a certain level of quality. Social Media Marketing Management platforms that provide a dashboard with features like content scheduling, amplification and measurement across social channels can be instrumental to the success of an integrated social media marketing effort.

To all our European Marketing readers, I’ll be giving�a keynote presentation (How To Be the Best Answer Wherever Customers Are Looking) on�a flavor of this topic in just a few weeks at the Content Marketing Conference run by J-P De Clerck of�Fusion Marketing Experience – Antwerp, Belgium on Tuesday, June 10th, 2014.

The lineup for this must-attend event is incredible with�Jay Baer�and�Mike Corak from the U.S., Doug Kessler from Velocity Partners in the UK, AJ Huisman of Dutch Law firm Kennedy Van der Laan, Kelly Hungerford from Paper.li in Switzerland, Danny Devriendt from Universal Media in Brussels, Tristan Lavender from Deloitte Netherlands and many more. If your company in Europe works with content marketing in any way, this event is�a can’t miss.

A law firm in Michigan,�Seikaly & Stewart,�is suing its former SEO provider — but not for a lack of ranking success. Rather the firm is getting sued for allegedly using “spammy” techniques violating Google’s guidelines. That comes via Eric Goldman.

The defendant�Rainmaker Institute, which specializes in online marketing services for the legal profession, is accused knowingly violating Google SEO guidelines by building “link farms” on behalf of the plaintiff’s several legal domains.

It’s not clear from the complaint�(also embedded below) whether the plaintiff law firm suffered any ranking penalty as a result of the link farming.�Here’s the factual core of the plaintiff’s claim:

Expert analysis performed since the conclusion of the contract has shown�that essentially no links were created for protectyourstudent.com and seikalystewart.com.�Approximately 6720 links appear to have been created for Oaklandbusinesslawyers.com,�but all the links with the exception of approximately 188 links, were worthless links built�with link farming techniques and, in many cases, were not forwarding to the Plaintiff�s�webpages at all.�

In approximately April 2012, Google stepped up enforcement of its policies�against link building schemes, in part through the implementation of new programs and�algorithms collectively known as the �Penguin� update.�

The Penguin update made it even less likely that the link building schemes�being utilized by the Defendants and THE RAINMAKER INSTITUTE would be of any value�to its clients.

Upon information and belief, it quickly became even more apparent to the�Defendants that their schemes would have no positive effect and might have a detrimental�effect on the webpages in domain names owned by the Victim Firms; however, Defendants�continued to take money for their worthless services, without disclosing that it knew that�the alleged services would be of no value.

Goldman points out that an earlier New Jersey case allowed a negligence claim against an SEO firm whose practices caused a duplicate content penalty for the plaintiff (its former SEO client).

In the current�Seikaly�case there have been no specific damages alleged. And the complaint doesn’t say that plaintiff’s domains have been penalized by Google.

Goldman says SEO clients should be more directly involved and informed about the practices that will be used by the retained SEO firm. It almost goes without saying, though we can’t expect “ordinary people” to be experts on Google’s SEO guidelines.

More interesting to me are the following questions implied or directly raised by the action (depending on the outcome):

Will SEO firms that go outside the bounds of established “white hat” SEO practice be automatically vulnerable to liability?Will the court limit liability in cases where the plaintiff has not done any “due diligence” on the SEO practitioner? In other words, what burden does a buyer of SEO services have to investigate the SEO firm? (Probably none.)What damages might be assessed in situations where a ranking penalty has occurred? (e.g., fees paid, lost revenue?)What might be recoverable when there is no Google ranking penalty?

Bank of America (BAC), inclusive of yesterday's poor trading, has still provided investors a 37.9% return in the last 12 months, and has recently upped its dividend after passing its Federal Stress Test in the last month.

[By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

Joe Raedle/Getty Images | Rumors about the demise of U.S. gasoline demand have been greatly exaggerated. Until late 2013, most energy observers forecast the world's most reliably gas-guzzling market to consume less fuel this year. What was once thought to be a structural decline in demand, however, has proven more durable than expected. As the summer driving season nears, retail gas remains stubbornly lodged near $4 a gallon. According to the Energy Information Administration, gas prices rose for 12 straight weeks through late April, and were 20 cents a gallon higher than the same point last year. So what gives? "The world's not swimming in crude or gasoline yet," said Francisco Blanch, commodities strategist at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, in an interview. "Despite all the crude and gasoline production in the U.S., international markets are not tagging along." International developments matter, analysts say, because gas prices are linked to internationally priced Brent crude. Turmoil in Ukraine and spotty supply from the perennially unstable Middle East has conspired to keep oil above $100 a barrel. In a research note this week, analysts at Goldman Sachs (GS) called crude oil fundamentals "stable but tight," adding that most developed-economy stockpiles "remain at low levels" amid lower-than-expected output from hotspots like Libya and Iraq. That backdrop explains why prices at the pump have defied the gravitational pull of a litany of mitigating factors such as a more fuel-efficient U.S. car fleet, rising domestic production ! and a sti! ll-fragile recovery that should blunt demand. Bank of America-Merrill (BAC) points out that domestic oil and gas production has driven gasoline imports to near zero, while the U.S. is churning out nearly 10 million barrels a day. Despite all this, there has been little relief at the pump due largely to factors outside America's control. The International Energy Agency said in its most recent report that OPEC will

source from Top Stocks Blog:http://www.topstocksblog.com/hot-cheap-stocks-to-buy-right-now-3.html

What really happened to eBay dropping in Google�s search results this week? A source familiar with the situation tells Search Engine Land that Google hit eBay with a manual penalty this week.

A manual penalty is when a human being at Google reviews a site and decides that it deserves some type of slap. Previously, it was assumed eBay was hit by the Panda 4.0 Update that rolled out this week, where a wide-range of sites were with with automatic penalties.

That might also be the case � eBay might have been hit by Panda in addition to a manual penalty, which was reported earlier by Re/Code.

The timing of the manual action — which may have been deliberate on Google’s part — certainly made it look like eBay’s troubles were Panda-related. Further confusing matters, Google also announced that the Payday Loan 2.0 update was rolling out the same day.

In the aftermath of the Panda 4.0 announcement, both Moz and RefuGeeks dug into eBay’s situation, with the latter site revealing that eBay had lost visibility on keywords that began with www.ebay.com/bhp in the URL:

Using SEMrush’s filter functions, you can actually see that of the 120K plus pages that lost rankings, nearly 90K were those with “BHP” in the URLs.

It’s possible that Panda did also hit eBay, but as I said above, we’ve learned that the site was hit with a manual action penalty that happened at about the same time as Panda. Whether the manual action penalty is instead of Panda, or in addition to Panda … we don’t know.